Re: Kenyan energy company entices Bitcoin miners with geothermal power
Yeah, speaking from experience too, it's the second coldest African country I've lived in (Ethiopia's frigging cold in winter). Compared to rest of Africa is much cooler in Kenya due to elevated land (for me, relatively anyway, from Southeast Asia, Kenya or at least Nairobi areas, it's really chilly. Right now actually 15 degrees Celcius, which is cooler than most air-conditioned places in SE Asia). Also it seems to be getting weirdly cold there -- 2 years ago massive hailstones destroying crops all around, snow occasionally since mid-2000s. So maybe it's less of an issue there (possibly even slightly more advantageous than in other parts of low-land Africa).
15 degrees sounds really good from the perspective of someone currently baking at 30+ and is thousands of miles away from Kenya. Generally people think that the whole African continent is one big hellish kitchen with a few exceptions, but the southern part of the continent seems to be quite colder than the north and the central part.
The more difficult issue to deal with would be the humidity, mining in a humid place is a lot worse than mining in a hot dry place, which many people seem to overlook, moisture is worse than heat, especially if you live in coastal areas, saltwater will do more damage to your gears than temps, humidity is also a lot harder to manage than heat.
Good information that many certainly didn't know about, and it definitely makes sense when you explain it that way. This would mean that some areas in Africa actually have the potential for crypto mining, despite having high temperatures in certain parts of the year. I looked at the situation with hydropower in Africa, and in the last 2 years the capacity was 38 GW, which is about 16 percent of total consumption, and by the end of 2040 that share could be about 25%.
